WASHINGTON — With 17 terms in office, Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall, is one of the most experienced members of Congress. But his challengers in the Republican primary are competing over the opposite distinction — who’s had the least exposure to Washington.

And even as they focus on the 90-year-old incumbent’s perceived status as a Washington insider and what they say is his lack of vigor in defending conservative values, they’re also dueling with each other over coveted political outsider status.

Attorney John Ratcliffe, 48, is Hall’s highest-profile challenger in the 4th Congressional District race. He’s a former U.S. attorney who served as the head federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Texas in 2007-08. He was also mayor of Heath for eight years, his only elected office.

Ratcliffe is running as a small-government conservative who is looking to fight Obamacare and decrease spending. He has nearly $500,000 in campaign funds, including $400,000 pulled from his own pockets.

“I like Congressman Hall,” Ratcliffe said. “But I’m hearing, as I cross the district, that people are just fed up with incumbents in Washington. They see them all as part of the problem and think they’ve all been there too long.”

Lou Gigliotti, a Plano business owner who has run against Hall before, said Ratcliffe offers more of the same as well.

“He’s a bureaucrat,” Gigliotti said, pointing to Ratcliffe’s work as U.S. attorney and his current job with lobbying and legal firm the Ashcroft Group.

The company was founded by former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Gigliotti said the group’s lobbying activities and government contracts are examples of “incestuous, revolving door relationships” in Washington. Ratcliffe’s work with the Ashcroft Group makes him a Beltway insider, Gigliotti argued.

Ratcliffe stressed that he isn’t a lobbyist and said his work with the company advances conservative principles. He said he’s lived in Texas since he was a teenager.

“The work that I’ve done since leaving the government has been to help corporations deal with oppressive regulation from the federal government,” Ratcliffe said. “I see myself as someone who has never lived in Washington and as someone who is very much detached from that culture.”

But Gigliotti says that he’s the real political outsider, and that his background in business makes him a better candidate to represent Texans. He’s run for Hall’s seat in the past two elections, but has never sought office otherwise.

Originally from New York, Gigliotti moved to Texas 30 years ago to start an auto parts business with little more than a $1,200 loan, he said. He began racing Corvettes in the late 1980s, and success on the track led to a thriving racing, aftermarket parts and race-car retrofitting company.

Gigliotti said that he’d apply the same tenacity he used building his business to Congress. “I’m like a bulldog,” he said. “You send me on a mission, and I’m going to finish it and finish it as quickly as possible.”

He’s put about $100,000 of his own money on the campaign so far and said he’s received about $15,000 in contributions. Gigliotti is planning more fundraising events and campaign stops around the district before the March 4 primary. Ratcliffe has a similar itinerary of fundraising and speaking events planned.

Also running in the primary are Army veteran Tony Arterburn; former Fate City Council member John Stacy; and Brent Lawson, an engineering manager from Van Alstyne. The winner will face only minor-party opposition in the November general election, as the district leans heavily Republican.

Hall, the oldest person to serve in the House, has indicated this will be his last campaign before he retires. Though he has just $175,000 in his campaign accounts, he’s expressed few worries about candidates running for his seat.